under fake parissian lights*

after a grievous disturbance of the senses
she thought of fairy lights she still kept on her dying christmas tree
and the waitress tap danced with him
la veuve joyeuse a la javanaise

*this little poem was written on the back of a paper mat by iain bamforth (1st line), me (2nd line), ney (3rd line) and richard oh (4th line) at oh la la djakarta theatre on wednesday, april 2, 2008. after he wrote his line, iain folded the paper so i couldn’t see what he had written. he only hinted that i should begin with a subject. the rest of us then repeated the method. iain jotted down the word renga, just to point out that our poem was similar to the japanese form of poetry. as for the title, ney is the one to blame.

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Published by violeteye

Gratiagusti Chananya Rompas was born in Jakarta, 19 August 1979. She studied English Literature in Universitas Indonesia, Depok (2003) and received her masters in The Gothic Imagination from University of Stirling, Scotland (2005).
She is one of the founders of Komunitas BungaMatahari, a mailing list-based Indonesian poetry community that have embraced many poetry enthusiasts with its catchphrase “semua bisa berpuisi” or, roughly translated, “poetry for all”. She is also involved in Selatan, a literary journal, and Paviliun Puisi, a monthly open mic event--both managed by her and her like-minded friends.
She currently resides in Jakarta, trying to find balance between writing and day-to-day living.
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